Twin-stick shooters. Ever since the popularity of Geometry Wars, people have been attempting to make the “next big thing” in twin-stick. Most get tossed into the Indie Games section of XBLA to wither and die (as they rightfully should). But some rise above the rest, and even improve upon the formula of Geometry Wars.
Galax-e-mail, the first title from Bog Turtle Games (yes, of Elfland Reloaded fame), is one such Indie Game twin-stick shooter and a copy was kindly given to us to review. The game has you traipsing around the galaxy acting as a sort-of electronic mail delivery service. Your task is to destroy alien bases throughout randomly generated arenas until you find a warp hole that delivers your e-mail to its final destination. Neither storm, nor black holes, nor alien swarms, nor minefields will stop you from accomplishing your appointed course.
Who Knew Delivery Could Be This Fun?
What we have here is a good example of what every twin-stick Indie Game wants to be. Galax-e-mail is one of the more refreshing Indie Games I’ve played. Controls are your common-place twin-stick controls (left stick controls movement, right controls shooting), with face buttons for using special weapons you pick up, such as an overshield, screen-wiping nuke, and wall-breaker missile. There’s also the shoulder buttons which control ship transformations (more on that in a bit). Everything is relatively clean, but I would’ve liked to see a tighter turning radius for my ship; I’ve wasted too much time in this game rotating my ship around a power-up, rather than collecting it.
Speaking of the ship, Galax-e-mail’s resident space cruiser is a fantastic means of conveyance. The ship has the ability to transform into one of three forms for whatever tasks you need accomplished. The first setting is a medium ship, with medium-strength weapons and speed. The second, a speed form, increases your movement at the cost of power. Your third and heaviest form glides slowly around, but has powerful shots. Each ship plays its own part as you go through the course of the game: the speed form is great for traveling long distances, the default is good for battling alien swarms, and the tank can destroy enemy bases like none other.
What Can Blue Spaceships Do For You
I was also impressed with the power-up and power-down systems in the game. Power-ups give you the ability to shoot two streams of bullets, whip your support ships into a frenzy, increase your health and give you extra ships. These helpful little guys act exactly as your ship does: they can transform, take on the same powers as your ship, etc. The ships are also your extra lives; when you die, your “soul” (a strange blue orb) floats into one of your buddy ships and takes it over. Die with no ships left, and it’s game over.
Power-downs are obviously an immense pain-in-the-ass. One can stop you from shooting by surrounding your ship with a peace sign. One slows you down, another makes you unable to stop moving (*grumble*), and yet another reverses your controls. Power-downs can also affect your ship differently depending on what form your ship has taken. For instance, if you picked up a “slow-down” item your heavy and medium ships slow to a crawl, but your speed form stops completely. I wasn’t expecting that kind of detail in an XBLIG, and I loved it.
What I didn’t love was the aggravating yet minor problems of Galax-e-mail. Power-downs can sometimes pop up out of nowhere, giving you little time to avoid them. Since they’re so small, lower-definition TVs don’t give you a good chance to decide if you’re about to pick up a power-up or power-down. And, since power-ups and power-downs stack as you collect them, you could have a completely defensive ship for a good 30 seconds. Enemies tend to drop homing mines behind them while they move, which become nearly impossible to dodge in later difficulty levels. These problems lead to immense casualties in later difficulty levels, but are somewhat manageable early on.
A few other points worth mentioning:
- Rather than have different worlds to explore, the game has 100 difficulty levels you can change. At the end of each level, the game asks you whether the previous level was too easy or just right, and changes the difficulty according to your answer.
- Loading screens are taken up by e-mail conversations between the brother developers, where one tells the other (and subsequently the player) a tip about how to play the game. You’re left to feel that the e-mail you’re delivering is the actual message you just read. Which is pretty cool.
You Should Play This Game If…
…you have any interest whatsoever in shooters, or have 200 MS points lying around.
Final Score
A fantastic Indie Game shooter that has some annoying points, but is overall fun and innovative.
